Blank Slate

Chapter 82 - Payton Taylor

After seeing the look that I have always dreaded on Ezra's handsome face I knew that I had been trying to do the impossible. I was trying to pretend to be something I wasn't, a good person. No amount of good deeds was going to erase what I had done. Ezra was right to look at me like scum on the bottom of his shoe. This whole working in a team thing had been a mistake from the beginning and the universe had been trying to tell me that for a long time. 

I was just too stubborn to admit defeat before seeing that look in Ezra's eyes.

However, my decision to leave didn't change the fact that the people in that room knew enough to get themselves in trouble. If they really did decide to go to the mob for the bounty, and I was nowhere to be found they would all die horrible deaths. I refused to let that happen. I needed to know what they were planning on doing next. So when I left the room I didn't leave Khalid's house.

Instead, I perched myself on one of the kitchen counters and listened to their conversation through an air vent that connected the two rooms. I sat there and listened as Ezra called the rest out for their blind trust in me. I had to admit that he had some very valid points and agreed that the team was wrong to give me their trust. But the idea that I was somehow behind Grace's kidnapping turned my stomach. It proved just how horrible of a person Ezra thought I was.

After Ethan got the call from Oliver, I knew that they would spread out and find me sooner or later. I didn't really mind if they found me. I no longer have anything to hide from them and I figured I deserved any recriminations that they threw my way. But I was still worried about what Ezra was going to do next. 

By the sounds of it, he wanted to turn me in to the authorities and have me processed like the criminal that I was. But there were a couple of problems with that. The first was that we were in a foreign country and I had no idea how they would deal with something like this in the UAE. The second was that I had an immunity deal so I couldn't be convicted of any of my past crimes, but the authorities that Ezra contacts could be dirty. And once again if the mob found out about Payton Taylor the whole team would be in danger. 

I need to protect these people. I had to contain this.

When the team split up to start looking for me, I followed Ezra to see what he would do next. But Ezra didn't go to the authorities, or make any calls, or even go to a bar to have a drink. He walked away from Khalid's house and kept walking for miles. As I followed him in the shadows of the buildings I noticed that they were moving from the nice part of the city to the rundown parts. By the time that Ezra slowed his pace we were in the slums, with shack-like structures that I assumed were people's houses. Ezra was noticed by two men dressed in full Islamic clothing on the other side of the street and they started talking to him in Arabic. Instead of walking on, Ezra turned and started walking towards the two men and it looked like he was saying something to them, but I couldn't hear.

Whatever was said, it didn't look like the two men appreciated it as one of them tried to lash out and hit Ezra. But Ezra was ready for the move and skipped away while taunting the men again. I didn't know what I was seeing but didn't like it. It looked like Ezra was picking a fight with two local guys in the middle of a city where he couldn't expect to get any help. I had no doubt that Ezra could handle two men, but if someone saw and called for help? Countless more could join this fight.

I scanned the surrounding area and saw that three men were walking down the adjacent street and would soon come across the fight soon. I strode away from Ezra and the fight to head them off. I knew that in neighborhoods like this, people tend to try to avoid trouble, so I reached back and pulled out my Sig Sauer. I shot three times into the ground. The shots had the desired effect and after ducking and looking around the men decided to turn and hurry off.